Seamless-fashioned stocking.



' No. 732,034. PATENTED JUNE 30, 1903.'

SEAMLESS FASHIONED STOGKING.

APPLIoA'rIoN FILED rms, a. 1902.

1ro MODEL.

Patented. J' une 30, 1903.

JAMES FRAZIER BARD, OF VINSTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

SEAMLESS-FASHIONED STOCKING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 732,034, dated June 30, 1903.

Application led February 6, 1902. Serial No. 92,777. (No model.) i

To all whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that I, JAMES FRAZIER BARD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Winston, in the county of Forsyth and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seamless-Fashioned Stockings, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to a seamless stocking knit upon a circular-knitting machine, in which a single yarn-feed supplies the circle of needles, an( in such conne ion 1t relates to the manufacture of such astocking which is not only seamless, but also fashioned.

Heretofore seamless stockings were knit upon a knitting-machine having a circle of needles which in the knitting operation produced a tubular fabric having at certain portions a back or sack formed by reciprocating or oscillating the yarn-feed to supply but onehalf orless of the circle of needles with thread, the remainder of the stocking being knit by rotating the yarn'feed and supplying each needle of the entire circle with thread to form the meshes. In such stockings some form was given to the leg portion by boarding and pressing the stocking to belly out the tube of the stocking above the ankle, so as lit'the calf of the leg of the wearer. As is well known to manufacturers of such stockings, the shape of the stocking thus obtained is lnot permanent, but, on the contrary, after the first washing of the stocking it resumes its form of a tube, with two bags or sacks to receive the heel and toe of the foot. Some attempts to fashion such stockings have been made. In the United States Letters Patent to R. M. Appleton, No. 243,425, dated June 28,1881, there is described a stocking wherein in the,

calf and heel portions of the stocking are" formed gussets or bags of tuck-stitching,`

which, being more elastic than the ordinary mesh or stitch, permits of a more ready eX- pansion of the fabric of the stocking at such points. In such a stocking, however, it is obvious that the meshes, being formed under tension, will when the fabric is removed from the machine speedily readj ust themselves, and the leg of the stocking will become a tube of the same diameter throughout.

In the present invention the tuck-stitch is used, as hereinafter described, for the purpose of making the tube wider at points above the ankle portion of the stocking; but in this use of the tuck-stitch there are also used plain stitches or meshes which from their comparative rigidity serve to prevent the readjustment of the tuck-stitches and hold the tube to its enlarged diameter.

In the carrying out ofthe present invention, the circle of needles will, during the formation of the foot and ankle portion of the stocking, knit the ordinary or plain mesh; but in the formation of the tubular legvportion the circle of needles isdivided intotwo series of needles alternating with each other, one of the series knitting always plain or `regular meshes, while the other seriesknitstuckstitches or elastic meshes.

The nature and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating diagrarnmatically a stocking knit according to my invention and thereafter pressed and finished. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of the circle of needles showing certain of said needles knitting plain meshes and other needles knittingtuck-stitches; and Fig. 3 is a View similar to Fig. 2, but illustrating all the needles knitting plain meshes.

Referring to Fig. l of the drawings, d represents the tubular leg portion, b the ankle portion ofthe same, c the foot, d the baglike heel, and e the bag-like toe portions, of the stocking. In the formation of the stocking from the toe c to the ankle portion b the circle of needles g are operated in the usual Well-known manner to form, as illustrated in Fig. 3, regular meshes 7c. After the portion b has been knit to the required length the remainder of the stocking, by preference, or

at least the leg portion athereof, is knit in alternate rows or stripes of regular meshes h and close-tuck stitches t, as indicated inFig. 2. To so knit the leg portion b, the circle of needles g after the regular meshes of the ankle b have been knit is divided into two ICO series of needles, one series always knitting plain or regular meshes, while the other series always knit tuck-stitches.

In the drawings the needles g are so arranged that alternate needles knit regular meshes and tuck-stitch meshes. The tube of the leg portion a is thus formed of vertical rows or stripes of single regular meshes separated by vertical rows or stripes of single tuck-stitch meshes. It, however, should be understood that each row or stripe,whether itis formed of regular or of tuck stitches, may be formed by a plurality of needles g. Thus a single needle g may knit a stripe or row one regular mesh wide, while several following needles in the course may knit a stripe or row of a plurality of v tuck-stitch meshes wide, and vice versa. The tuck-stitch meshes are formed, as is well knownin the art, by rst forming on the needlea loop, to which is added in succeeding revolutions of the yarn fone or more crossing-threads, the needle not casting ol`1c the formed loop until the required number of crossing-threads have been held on the needle. The resultant stocking will have in its tubular leg portion a series of stripes or sections of tuck-stitohesz' alternating with a series of stripes or sect-ions of regular meshes h. The stripes of regular meshes 7L form comparatively unyielding barriers confining the tuck-stitches e to prevent them readjusting themselves circumferentially around the tubular leg portion b of the stocking.

It will be found that in stockings formed as hereinabove described the tube of the leg portion b will be of larger diameter than the diameter of the tube of the ankle and foot 4 A seamless stocking knit at one operation and having toe, foot, heel and ankle portions formed of regular meshes and a tubular leg portion formed of alternate vertical stripes of regular and tuck-stitch meshes.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES FRAZIER BARD.

Witnesses:

T. J. WILSON, JOHN H. SHUI/rz. 

